You may have seen this post on TV Forum also.

This is from the Daily Mail.

Some of Britain’s most popular TV game shows could be forced off the air after regulators launched a probe into whether they constitute gambling.
Producers of Noel Edmonds’ hugely successful Deal Or No Deal on Channel 4 have been shocked to be told by the Gambling Commission that their £250,000 jackpot games could be breaking the law because they do not involve any element of skill.
ITV’s Red Or Black?, the £1 million a-night game show presented by Ant and Dec, and developed by Simon Cowell, is also understood to have been hit by the investigation.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1olBDL2za

Don't know what to make of this. I wouldn't have thought it would be considered gambling as you have to give something up before you play the game for it to be a gamble. Obviously the game includes gambles, but they're not really gambles if you don't really own that money till the company pay out.

Hopefully it will stay on air.

Obviously I've been quite outspoken on the show "encouraging gambling" before, so you'd think maybe I might be a bit excited at this.

My thoughts on this? Well, firstly, I believe that the Deal or No Deal format itself does not encourage gambling, but the show as aired on UK television arguably does, as a specific result of certain production decisions. Those of you who've folllowed my posts for the last six years will have some familiarity with these arguments already. The consequences of those decisions can arguably be seen in the contributions on this forum, particularly from the younger members.

As a result, I'm not going to judge this until I see the remit of the Gambling Commission with regard to any action on the show, and my judgment may well be based on the remit instead - for instance, they may only consider whether the game itself is gambling (and I think that a risk-management game with house money, which is what DoND is, can be interpreted either way).

The proposed changes would certainly sink DoND as we know it, although the show could be retooled to fit any new requirements: a post-watershed slot would imply that the show could replace The Bank Job in a rotation with Million Pound Drop (all three are from the same arm of Endemol if memory serves), as a live show (which has been proven to work technically), with the current format replaced by some variant on the "Miljoenenjacht" format from which this show originates, where the DoND game is a bonus round for a quiz winner. The stakes would rise in accordance with the expectations of the slot - a 26-box £1m board would make sense, perhaps copying the Belgian board and putting it in sterling rather than euro.

I fervently disagree with whoever got quoted as saying that DoND is the most innocent show on television. It sometimes pretends to be, it basically has to pretend to be to keep the Mail-reading audience onside, but it isn't. Ironically, it does a good enough job pretending that I would say any pro-gambling slant becomes that little bit more seductive.

The show needs to be regulated into something better, not smashed off the air on a technicality under an Act of Parliament as old as the show itself.

This may be the mystery reason why they aren't filming this week.

It would also remove a few more non-question based game shows too.

100% in agreement with you KP! I think we are on the same page with respect to the producers making decisions to encourage a 'gambling' aspect to the game. There are specific cases, certainly within the last 24 months were a player has decided to take a monetary prize and has then being offered a gamble of either a full or part amount of that prize on further box openings for either a larger monetary prize -or- for a smaller prize such as a holiday. The "bankers gamble" is the prime example I am thinking of and the name itself its quite descriptive! I am excluding games where a player has chosen to 'buy' outright a holiday for a fixed sum.

Additional producer prompts for gambling has been with the 'mini' boxes that have made lesser appearances. I forget the exact game in 2011, but one player ended up being offered 6 boxes before they would gamble (part?) of their winnings in order to win a larger cash prize.

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value (referred to as "the stakes") on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling

They definitely need to clean up their act and clear out a lot of these issues. As I am such a fan of the show I would hate to see DOND taken off the air, but they can hardly claim to be whiter than white with production decisions made in the last few years.

Another point that has been raised before on here is the choice of sponsorship deals with the show: discuss!

Obviously, Deal is a show that is mainly based on luck rather than skill. However, it could be argued that there is some skill in deciding when to deal.

Obviously, we only have the Daily Mail's word for this, and we know what they can be like with stories like this (if you haven't tried the Daily Mail-o-matic yet, I thoroughly recommend you do). We need some comment on this from another, more serious paper IMO.

It's weird , I was talking with my friend about DOND on Friday and he asked whether it breaks gambling rules and now this happens. I can't see that after 6 and a bit years that it now becomes a problem.
What would I do Monday to Friday at 4!

What the *beep*!

This is so so stupid! Why does that cause such a problem? I'll be bored after school every day now!Why can't crap gameshows like golden balls come off air!

And worst of all, what would happen to the forum???

But Golden Balls is off the air - The Chase replaced it.

And Weakest Link will be gone in a few weeks, too.

Anyway, while DOND may not be the show it used to be, I would be appalled if it was forced off the air just because of a rather Draconian ruling by a commission that wasn't even around on 31 October 2005.

But then again, that report is from the Daily Fail...

If it does come off air... hopefully we will see the first ever male £250,000 winner.

Oh, right, I didn't know that.



I read on the official forum that Noel is ill, so that's why there's no filming.

That was just one of the many RUMOURS that were spread,and as I said on there, await for an official reply,be it from DOND Admin or the media..

You were due to go this week wasn't you, or was it the next?

It's possible (and, I suspect, likely) that Noel being ill was a fabrication to cover up the Gambling Commission probe.

What a load of old crap, political correctness gone mad

This is really bad news! Hope my trip to the DF on the 27th will still be on.

One assumes therefore that horse racing will have to go off air as well, but of course that would reduce betting and hence the tax that the Government receive - so that's not likely to happen!

Yep - and have train tickets I can't use or transfer at moment.

Well when you do you, hopefully the spoiler section thread will be put into good use again of who's playing and when.

Surely this can't be true. After 6 years they bring it up now?